The next time you chomp into a chicken wing, order your kids’ favorite chicken nuggets, or enjoy an elegant dinner of coq au vin, think rendering!
And what better time to consider poultry rendering than September, National Chicken Month!
Industrial poultry rendering consists of large-scale recycling of unconsumed chicken parts, bones, and tissues from processing plants. During this process, raw materials are heated, moisture is evaporated, and mechanical separation divides the product into protein meals and animal fats. The resulting materials can be repurposed into new products like:
- Biofuels to power trucks, trains, water vessels and other vehicles
- High-protein feed for farm animals like cattle, hogs, turkeys, and chickens
- Nutritious pet food
- Soaps
- Tires
Rendering is sustainability at its best. Rather than sending billions of pounds of organic material to landfills each year, rendering recovers and repurposes nearly 99% of it, closing the loop in the food production cycle. In addition, the manufacture and trade in rendered products is an important component of the agricultural economy of the United States. After all, rendering jobs cannot be exported to foreign countries due to the raw and perishable nature of the material the industry reclaims.
This National Chicken Month, let’s take a moment to thank everyone along the poultry rendering chain who helps recover valuable resources and give them new purpose.
